friends in low places

Chapter Fourteen

Charlie woke up to Phoebe playing with his hair, with light shining in from her window. There was music coming from downstairs, it sounded like jazz. He could hear the quiet voices of Lucy and Julien wafting up the stairs, the sounds of them laughing and talking filled his ears. He looked up at Phoebe, who was smiling down lazily at him.

"Good morning sunshine." She said simply, continuing to play with his hair. 

"Hi there" Charlie said back with a smile, "What time is it?" He asked, stretching subtly. 

Phoebe picked up her phone with her free hand and checked the time.

"It is 9:30. I believe JB and Luc are downstairs making breakfast if you're hungry." She said, although she didn't really want him to leave her room. 

She woke up to his arms wrapped firmly around her, with his head on her chest, like he was scared someone was going to come in the middle of the night and try to steal him away from her. Julien woke her up an hour earlier when she came in to ask if she wanted to go to the farmer's market, but Phoebe declined. She didn't want to leave him. 

He looked back up at her, and for whatever reason, put his head back on her chest and closed his eyes again. 

"You're very comforting" Charlie said, unsure if what he was doing was allowed, or wanted, but he felt compelled to. He had always been so drawn to her, wanting to know all her secrets, wanting to spend hours with her. 

Phoebe smiled to herself and patted his head. She had no idea where this was going, but it was nice in the moment. She was scared he was just going to up and disappear for another two years, but she also knew that it wasn't going to happen. She didn't want to let herself get used to him being around just for him to take off again. 

They laid there for awhile, enjoying each other's presence, existing together. 

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"Luc can you hand me the milk please?" Julien asked. She was making chocolate chip pancakes, her speciality. 

Lucy stopped spreading cream cheese on her bagel and handed her the milk. As she set it down, she dipped her finger in the cream cheese and smeared it on Julien's cheek. 

"Awh what the fuuuuck," Julien said, putting the whisk down and attempting to clean her face off. Before she said anything else, she grabbed a scoop of cream cheese and smeared it all over Lucy's face, sticking her tongue out and laughing. 

"Yeah I had that coming." Lucy said, laughing it off and reaching for a paper to clean off her face too. They laughed together for a moment before going back to what they were doing. They had been having a lot of little moments of domesticity like that recently. They had been eating breakfast together, taking walks after dinner together, and staying up into the late hours of the night talking about everything under the sun. They had always been close, they all had; but something about this felt different. Lucy looked over at Julien, just admiring her, when Phoebe and Charlie walked into the kitchen. 

"Morning losers" Phoebe said, as she opened the fridge to scavenge for some food. 

"Good morning to you too, my lovely ball of sunshine." Julien said, not looking up from her chocolate chip pancake concoction. 

Charlie laughed at the interaction as he sat down at the kitchen table. He took out his phone and tried texting Zeb. 

Charlie: hey man, it's Charlie; I got a new number. I know it's been a long time. I'm back with the boys, and I'm doing a lot better now. They saved my ass man. anyway im sorry about everything, and I really want to talk to you sometime. you can't stay mad at me forever, right? love you, I hope I hear from you soon.